Are affairs still shocking? A ‘Madame Bovary’ reboot for the 21st century

Essbaum drew on her own experience of living in Switzerland to tell the story of Anna, a depressed housewife whose adulterous trysts ultimately fail to protect her from depression, boredom and loneliness.

The protagonist has been compared to Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina – 150-year-old heroines whose stories seem far removed from the experience of 21st-century wives.